If you just want to see Boston Rob putting on a clinic in how to play the game, watch All-Stars. If you want to see the twistiest, most strategic season ever played: Micronesia. If you want some amazing characters and storylines, watch Palau. When this show is good it's so fucking good.

Oh, I got my Robs mixed up. Fortunately for you, the All-Stars season has both of them.

Regarding Micronesia, dive right in. There isn't really anything crucial you'll be missing by not watching any of the contestants' prior seasons. The big thing is don't watch Heroes vs. Villains before watching All-Stars and Palau. I would pretty much recommend watching them in the order I listed them in the previous post, just slot All-Stars in before Samoa and HvsV.

I know I said you didn’t need prior knowledge to enjoy this season, but for context it should be noted that Johnny Fairplay was a notorious jackass and liar who orchestrated a plan on his original season to earn sympathy by making the other contestants believe that his grandmother had just died. Also, Jeff Probst fucking HATES the guy and doesn’t try to hide it.

that's taking it a bit too far, but he seemed entertaining enough in the episode. maybe I would have hated him if they kept him around though. i'm five episode in now, and I really enjoy it so far. Tracy plays the game pretty good. she has pretty much "saved" Chet twice now, and taken out two strong contestants in Joel and that other dude (Mike maybe?), while doing it under the radar. I don't think that people see her as a threat yet, but she seems smart, and are in that middle ground where you want to be in the beginning. good and entertaining season so far. almost every tribal council has had some kind of twist.

e: and there she went. it's impossible to predict what's going to happen tbh

e2: i'm addicted to this now, Ami got voted out in the latest episode which is sad (she was my favorite), but i'm also enjoying the Erik and Ozzy romance so it's okay. there's so much good stuff going on. i'm really curious how the fake immunity thing will play out

all four of them are so good in it. Parvati manipulating him by saying "you have lost the respect from all the women here", and Amanda being really upset with him, making him REALLY believe that he has to "redeem" himself somehow. I didn't think they could top the previous tribal councils, and thought it was a done deal as soon as Erik won immunity, but they outdid themselves.

I was rooting for Amanda for a while, but changed my mind in the last couple of episodes. she came across as pretty false, and I think Parvati was more deserving of it in the end. she was the smarter of the two.

I almost watched the whole season today. I would have been ashamed if it wasn't so enjoyable.